#11 Perfection your Norwegian "u" sound and avoid misunderstandings [pronunciation] [uttale]

Struggling with Norwegian pronunciation? You're not alone! The letter U presents a unique challenge for English speakers, requiring tongue positioning that feels unfamiliar and awkward at first. 

This episode breaks down the mechanics of the Norwegian U sound with practical exercises to help you master it. The secret lies in understanding that while your lips form a circle (similar to saying "ooo"), your tongue needs to stay in the position you use when saying "ee" as in "eagle."

Chapters

• 0:13 Introduction to Norwegian U sound
• 1:57 Proper tongue positioning technique
• 6:10 Practicing the long U sound
• 8:37 Short U sound variations
• 12:10 Encouragement and final practice tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hello, how are you? Today we're pronouncing the letter U, which in Norwegian is not pronounced U. It's pronounced U U like in du", and some languages have this sound. French has it already U In English.

Speaker 1: 0:36

You don't have that sound isolated, but there is a similar sound which I already pronounced, which is you, you. So when you say you, or when you say you, for instance, then you're already saying the you sound. You just added a sound in the beginning, you just added you in the beginning. So if you're able to take that you away, then it's, then you have it, then it's there. But that might not be so easy, because when you isolate it since you're not used to isolating that sound it might come out more as a ooo instead, because you're not necessarily aware of how that sound is pronounced. So I will explain that to you.

Speaker 1: 1:29

The reason why it's easier to say you is exactly because of the ye sound you have in the beginning when you say ye or ee. If you say that right now, try to say, whether out loud or silently, just shape your lips and your tongue the way you need to in order to say Okay and notice how your tongue is placed, because that's where you have to focus. When you want to say, you have to have the tongue at the right place, because if you want to say the letter in Norwegian, it's On the outside. It looks exactly like the way we pronounce the O, so those two sounds look exactly the same on the outside. Your lips will be shaped as a circle, so the only way to differentiate them is by focusing on the tongue positioning. So what you want to do when you say y is that you place the tongue at the same place in your mouth as when you say e, e, like eagle or irresponsible, okay. So e e the tip of your tongue.

Speaker 1: 3:01

Of course, everybody's different. You might not have exactly the same place of your tongue as I do, and that's fine as long as it's not too far away from it. But when I say E, the tip of my tongue is touching the lower teeth, back of the lower teeth, and it is arching up to the palate, which is the higher part of your mouth. So I, I. And another way to be really aware of this is by trying to pronounce u, u, so u is like the same sound, as you would say in the beginning of what, what, what. You have to do that. You have to feel it in order to notice how your tongue is placed differently. And so when you do that, you go back to E.

Speaker 1: 4:16

First you can say what? Notice how your tongue is laying more flat. It's arching, but in the back of your mouth and that is where the air is blocked a little bit in the back of your mouth. What? But the tongue is laying flat apart from that, whereas when you say it's arching up, it's touching the palate almost all the way until the front of your mouth and that's where you want the tongue to be. So keep that positioning, just keep it. And then you change the shape of your mouth. So you want to shape it as when you say what you want, that same circle round mouth.

Speaker 1: 5:14

So start with ee. Then you change the way you shape your lips ee. You can even go back and forth between those two sounds without changing your tongue positioning, just changing how your lips are shaped. That can be a really good exercise in order to be aware of how the tongue is and getting used to having your tongue in that place, even when the sound is isolated. So ee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee, and I try to say it without starting with ee. That might be tricky, but try and see how it goes Y, y, y, y. If you get unsure, or if you notice that it's not exactly that, your tongue maybe wants to go in the back, where it's comfortable being, because it's used to being in the back For many people. It wants to go back because it wants to say o instead. So you have to remind yourself about the tongue positioning by saying I again. Okay, so you can practice that back and forth, going from I to u, I, u, I, u, and then trying to say u by itself, saying words starting with u like ut, ut, ut, ule,u le, ule, which means to owl like a wolf ule, ule, uke, uke, uke, y, uke.

Speaker 1: 7:27

We're going to continue with the long U sound and now having some words not starting with U, so that this will be a little bit harder. If you're still struggling with the ones starting with U, then continue with them first until you feel that you're comfortable with them and then you can come back here. So words not starting with U could be Hus, hus, hus, mus, mus, mus, lun, lun, lun, lun, lun means warm varm it's another way for varm. Okay, that was it for the long u sounds.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Let's do some shorter ones. And in order to get this, what you have to think about is that you're trying to make a more dynamic sound. It's just like the difference between hit and hit. Same logic, just different vowel Hit, hit. We'll start with the short one in the beginning. So, ull, wall, ull, ull, wall, yeah, and a word we say a lot when we're to say like, oh, that's a pity, you can say uff, uff, uff, uff. Okay, let's move on to the ones not starting with U, oh.

Speaker 1: 9:49

And one thing I wanted to comment on is that when you make shorter vowels and this doesn't only apply for Y, it applies for all the vowels the vowel will open up a little bit. This is not something you have to think about, it will happen, naturally. But it's good to know because when you hear the sound, you might not always recognize it Because, yeah, it sounds more open. So the shorter vowels can be a little bit more difficult to differentiate from each other. Okay, so now let's do one or two where we don't start with U. Okay, with U, okay, tull, tull, tull, tull means joke or nonsense.

Speaker 1: 11:03

Full, full, full, full, full. Full means full, full, not as in you've had enough to eat Just something that has been filled up, or it means drunk. So it's a false friend. Don't say that you're full. To say that you're full, because it's not the same. Okay, I hope that went well.

Speaker 1: 11:33

If you're still struggling, go through these again and remember you can always go back to E, where your tongue positioning will be right, if you ever feel that you don't know where to put your tongue anymore.

Speaker 1: 11:47

And you need to practice a lot in order for this to become automatic, because your muscle memory has to change. Your mouth is not used to pronouncing this sound, so it will not come naturally in the beginning, but the more you practice and the more you use it, the easier it will become, and in the end you will not even think about it. So just keep practicing and it will be easier and easier with time. And another thing that I wanted you to be aware of is that maybe now you don't really hear the difference between U and O. It's a very subtle difference, but when you get used to pronouncing it correctly, it will also be easier for you to hear the difference. I think that's super fascinating. So just yeah, because then you know how it's pronounced. You can almost feel in your mouth how the sound is made when you hear it, so that's why it will be easier for you later to also to understand what people are saying. So lykke til og vi høres!